Getting Started

This section helps you get started with this chapter by providing an overview of the steps involved in provisioning Oracle RAC. Consider this section to be a documentation map to understand the sequence of actions you mOracle Enterprise Manager Administrator's Guide for Software and Server Provisioning and Patchingust perform to successfully provision Oracle RAC. Click the reference links provided against the steps to reach the relevant sections that provide more information.

Table 5-1 Getting Started with Provisioning Oracle RAC

Step

Description

Reference Links

Understanding the Deployment Procedure

Understand the Deployment Procedure that is offered by Enterprise Manager Grid Control for provisioning Oracle RAC. Know how the Deployment Procedure functions, what use cases it covers, what core components it deletes or scales down, and so on.

The Deployment Procedure consists of a series of interview screens that take you through the different deployment phases and capture the required information. Understand the different phases involved and know what information is captured in each phase.

To learn about the deployment phases involved in cloning an existing Oracle RAC, see Deployment Phases.

To learn about the deployment phases involved in provisioning Oracle RAC using a gold image, see Deployment Phases.

To learn about the deployment phases involved in provisioning Oracle RAC using the software binaries from an installation medium, see Deployment Phases.

Meeting the Prerequisites

Before you run any Deployment Procedure, you must meet the prerequisites, such as setting up of the provisioning environment, applying mandatory patches, setting up of Oracle Software Library.

To learn about prerequisites for cloning an existing Oracle RAC, see Prerequisites.

To learn about the prerequisites for provisioning Oracle RAC using a gold image, see Prerequisites.

To learn about the prerequisites for provisioning Oracle RAC using the software binaries from an installation medium, see Prerequisites.

To provision Oracle RAC using the software binaries from an installation medium, follow the steps explained in Provisioning Procedure.

Deployment Procedures

Enterprise Manager Grid Control offers the following Deployment Procedures for provisioning Oracle RAC:

Oracle Clusterware / RAC Provisioning For UNIX

Oracle Clusterware / RAC Provisioning For Windows

Note:

When you run the Deployment Procedures to provisioning Oracle RAC on a shared file system, the software binaries are installed in the shared location, but the configuration happens only on one node and not on all nodes. This is an expected behavior. To configure other nodes, run the One Click Extend Cluster Database procedure to extend the Oracle RAC stack to other nodes.

Core Components Deployed

When you provision Oracle RAC, essentially, the Deployment Procedures deploy the following core components:

Oracle Clusterware

Oracle RAC Database

Optionally, Automatic Storage Management (ASM)

You can deploy ASM either in the same Oracle home as the one for Oracle RAC Database, or in a completely different Oracle home (recommended).

Supported Releases

Using these Deployment Procedures, you can provision the following releases of Oracle RAC:

Oracle RAC Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.x.x)

Oracle RAC Database 11g Release 1 (11.1.x.x)

Cloning a Running Oracle RAC

This section describes how you can clone an existing Oracle RAC installation that is running on a host monitored by Enterprise Manager Grid Control.

If you want to clone Oracle RAC 11g Release 1 (11.1.0.6) on Solaris platforms, then apply patch# 6486988 on the Oracle home that needs to be cloned.

Ensure that the target hosts have the necessary hardware and software required for Oracle RAC. The hardware requirements include setting up of the following:

Private Network: The network interface cards must be installed on each node and connected to each other.

Shared Storage Between Nodes: The shared storage is required for OCR, Voting disks and the data files.

Ensure that the Virtual IPs are set up in the DNS. If you choose to set up the Virtual IPs locally, then the IP addresses can be specified using the Deployment Procedure, and the procedure will set them up for you.

If you want to use standard response files while provisioning the database, then edit the dbca.rsp file available on the installation medium, and store it in a location accessible from the target hosts. The file may be on the target host or on a shared location.

To understand how response files work, see the Oracle Database Installation Guide for Linux available at one of these URLs:

If you want to use a custom template to create a structure for the database, then create a template (a .dbt file), and store it in a location accessible from the target hosts. The file may be on the target host or on a shared location.

Ensure that the User IDs for operating system users and the Group IDs for operating system groups are identical on all nodes of the cluster.

Prerequisites for Operators

Ensure that you do NOT use an NIS-based operating system user.

Ensure that you use an operating system user that has the privileges to run the Deployment Procedure and its commands on the target hosts. If you do not have the privileges to do so, that is, if you are using a locked account, then request your administrator (a designer) to either customize the Deployment Procedure to run it as another user or ignore the steps that require special privileges. For information about customization, see Chapter 23, "Customizing Steps to Run as Another User".

Ensure that you use an operating system user that has write permission on the staging areas used for placing software binaries of Oracle RAC database.

Deployment Procedures allow you to use staging locations for quick file-transfer of binaries and prevent high traffic over the network. While providing a staging location, ensure that the operating system user you use has write permission on those staging locations. For information about staging area, see Staging Area.

Compare the configuration of the source and target hosts and ensure that they have the same configuration. If the configurations are different, then contact your system administrator and fix the inconsistencies before running the Deployment Procedure.

To compare the configuration of the hosts, in Grid Control, click Targets and then Hosts. On the Hosts page, click the name of the source host to access its Home page, and then click the Configuration tab. On the Configuration page, click Compare Configuration and select the target host.

While selecting the source, remember to remove sqlnet.ora from the list of files mentioned in Files to Exclude.

Enterprise Manager Grid Control displays the Select Source page of the Deployment Procedure.

On the Select Source page, do the following:

In the Select Source section, select Select from Existing Installations. Then click the torch icon for Reference Host and select the host on which the existing Oracle RAC installation is running. Once you select the reference host, the application automatically displays the working directory and the details of the selected Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Database.

If you want to save the selected Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Database as gold images in the Software Library, then click Save to Software Library. Oracle Clusterware is saved as a Clusterware Clone component type and Oracle Database is stored as a Database Clone component type, respectively.

Note:

Maintain different locations as working directories in case a shared disk is used between the source host and the destination host.

Remove sqlnet.ora from the list of files mentioned in Files to Exclude. If you do not remove it, the Oracle RAC database configuration will fail.

Click Next.

On the Select Hosts page, do the following:

In the Hosts to Include in Cluster section, click Add and select the target hosts that should form the cluster. To see more details about the selected hosts, click Show Options.

Note:

When you click Add, the Select Target pop-up window appears. On this page, by default, the Show Suitable Hosts option is selected and the table lists only those hosts that are best suited for provisioning. If you do not find the host you want to add, then select Show All Hosts to view a complete list of hosts.

By default, Private Host Name and Virtual Host Name are automatically prefilled with values. Edit them and specify values that match with your environment. Optionally, you can also specify their IP addresses.

If you already have these details stored in cluster configuration file, then click Import From File to select that cluster configuration file. This file typically contains information about the new hosts to be added. To understand how a cluster configuration file looks, see the sample file shown in Sample Cluster Configuration File.

To configure the private and public network interfaces, click Select Interfaces. By default, the interfaces that have the same name and subnet for the selected target hosts are displayed. However, you can also choose to view all the interfaces for the selected target hosts. You can either select one of the existing interfaces or specify a completely new one if the interface you want to use does not exist.

In the Network Interface Configuration section, review the details of the private and public interfaces.

Click Next.

On the Credentials/Schedule page, do the following:

In the Reference Host Credentials section, retain the default selection, that is, Use Preferred Credentials.

Note:

You can optionally override these preferred credentials. The credentials you specify here are used by the Deployment Procedure to run the provisioning operation. If this environment is secure and has locked accounts, then make sure that:

The credentials you specify here have the necessary privileges to switch to the locked account for performing the provisioning operation.

The Deployment Procedures has been customized to support locked environments.

From the Host Credentials list, select Different for each Oracle Home if you want to use different operating system credentials for each Oracle home, or Same for all Oracle Homes if you want to use the same set of credentials for all Oracle homes. Depending on the selection you make, specify the credentials. Ensure that the users belong to the same group (dba/oinstall).

In the Target Host(s) Credentials section, provide the credentials as described in Step 6 (a).

Note:

If you are using vendor clusterware, then ensure that root and the operating system users, such as oracle and crsuser, owning the clusterware and various Oracle homes are a part of the operating system groups required by the vendor clusterware.

For example, if your system uses High Availability Cluster Multiprocessing (HACMP) clusterware, then create or check for the existence of the group hagsuser. Ensure that the relevant operating system users and root user are members of this group.

For more information, refer to the Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Real Application Clusters Installation and Configuration Guide.

In the Schedule section, schedule the Deployment Procedure to run either immediately or later.

Click Next.

On the Configure Cluster page, do the following:

In the Cluster Name and Location section, review the default name and location details provided for Oracle Clusterware and Oracle RAC Database. While Oracle recommends you to retain the default values, you can always edit them to provide custom values.

For security purposes, the clusterware configuration sets the ownership of Oracle Clusterware home and all its parent directories to be owned by root. Hence, Oracle recommends you to install Oracle Clusterware outside the Oracle base of the Oracle RAC home.

The default cluster name you see here is based on the host cluster name you provided in the Agent Deploy application in Enterprise Manager Grid Control, while deploying Management Agents on a cluster. The scratch location you see here is a temporary location on the target host where temporary files are placed before provisioning and configuring Oracle RAC.

For Additional Parameters, specify any additional parameters you want to run while installing Oracle Clusterware. For example, -debug.

You can specify any Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) parameter that can be used in this provisioning operation. Using these parameters, you can even change the installation type of the database. For example, INSTALL_TYPE=SE. Ensure that the parameters are separated by white space.

Note:

If you do not see a default cluster name in the Cluster Name field, then you might have selected nodes that are not master nodes of the cluster. In this case, manually specify a cluster name, but ensure that the name you specify is the same host cluster name you provided in the Agent Deploy application in Enterprise Manager Grid Control, while deploying Management Agents on that cluster.

If this entire section (Cluster Name and Location section) is disabled, then it is clear that each node has a Management Agent, but they were NOT installed using the Cluster Install option available in the Agent Deploy application. To resolve this issue, ensure that you convert the standalone Management Agents to a cluster agent. For more information, see Appendix I, "Converting Standalone Oracle Management Agent to Cluster Agent".

In the Database Details section, retain the default selection for creating a starter database.

Note:

If the database creation steps are disabled in the Deployment Procedure, then you will not see this section.

If you want to create a general-purpose database, then leave all the fields in this section blank. Otherwise, provide the required details as described in this step.

If you have a custom response file that already has the options enabled, then select Use response file to create database, and specify the full path to a location where the file is available. The file may be available on the target host, in a shared location accessible from the target host, in the Software Library, or in a location where an existing database is running.

Note:

From the Software Library or from the location where an existing database is running, only a .dbt template file can be used. However, from the target host or a shared location, any template file can be used.

If you do not have a custom response file, then select Do not use response file, and provide the global database name, the credentials, and the additional parameters you want to run while creating the starter database.

Note:

Ensure that the database name you specify is in the format database_name.database_domain. It must have 1 to 8 alphanumeric characters. For example, orcl.mydomain.com. Also note that the credentials you provide are used for SYS, SYSTEM, SYSMAN, and DBSNMP accounts.

If you want to use the structure of an existing database and have a custom template to structure the new database, then in Template File for Database, specify the full path to a location where the template file is available. The file may be available on the target host or on a shared location accessible from the target host.

Note:

If you do not store the response files and templates in a central location, you can always customize the Deployment Procedure to add another step that copies the response file or template to the target host before invoking the configuration tools to create the database.

In the Backup and Recovery Details section, retain the default selection, that is, Do not Enable Automated Backups if you do not want to have backups taken.

Alternatively, if you want to enable automated backups, select Enable Automated Backups, specify the full path to a directory location from where the backed-up files can be recovered, and provide the operating system credentials for running the backup job. Note that recovery location is the same location as the backup location because this where the files are backed up and also recovered from.

In the ASM Instance Details section (appears only if you had selected to deploy ASM), retain the default selection, that is, Create ASM Instance, and specify the credentials, additional ASM parameters to be used, and the ASM disk string to be used.

Important:

If you are provisioning Oracle Database 10g and Oracle ASM 10g, then ensure that you specify the same password for database as well as ASM.

If you have a custom response file that already has the options enabled, then select Use response file to create ASM database, and specify the full path to a location where the file is available. The file may be availableon the target host or on a shared location accessible fromt he target hosts.

If you do not want to use a response file, then select Do not use response file.

Click Next.

On the Storage page, do the following:

In the Shared Storage Configuration section, provide details about the storage devices and click Next. Specify the partition name and the mount location, and select the mount format and a storage device for storing data. While partition name is the path to the location where the device is installed, mount location is the mount point that represents the partition location.

While configuring the storage device, at a minimum, you must have a partition for at least OCR, Voting Disk, and data files. You cannot designate the same storage device to multiple partitions.

Oracle recommends designating the OCR and the OCR Mirror devices to different partitions. Similarly, Oracle recommends designating the Voting Disk, Voting Disk1, and Voting Disk2 to different partitions.

Before clicking Next, do the following:

- If you want to clear the data on selected raw devices before creating and configuring the cluster, then select Clear raw devices.

- If you have configured only for a few storage devices, then select Do not provision storage for others that you do not want to provision.

- Specify the ASM disk string to be used.

In the Options section, select the ASM redundancy mode. The default is None, which requires 7 GB of space. While Normal requires 16 GB of space, High requires 32 GB.

(Optional) On the Advanced Configuration page, do the following:

Note:

If the configuration steps are disabled in the Deployment Procedure, then you will not see this page.

In the Bonding Interface (Private Interconnect) section, select Configure Bonding Interface if you want to configure the bonding interface. To bind the interfaces, specify details as described in Table 5-5.

In the Sysctl File Configuration section, select Configure Sysctl file if you want to configure the sysctl.conf file. Specify the mode of editing the system configuration file and the location of the reference system configuration file used for modifying the kernel parameters.

The default mode is append. You can however select edit to modify, and replace to replace the current sysctl.conf file.

Ensure that the reference file you specify is available in a shared location accessible by the Oracle Management Service.

On the Configure Oracle Home page, do the following:

If the host where the database is being provisioned has a direct connection to the Internet, then specify an e-mail address and My Oracle Support password.

An e-mail address is required so that security updates and install updates can be sent. You can specify any e-mail address, but Oracle recommends you to specify the My Oracle Support user name. For example, john.mathew@xyz.com.

If the My Oracle Support password is incorrect, you will be allowed two more attempts. However, if your password is incorrect in all three attempts or if it is left blank, then you are registered anonymously, which means, the configuration information will be collected and uploaded to My Oracle Support but the uploaded information will not be associated with your My Oracle Support account. Therefore, if you log in to My Oracle Support with your credentials, you will not see this information displayed against your account. However, if you had specified an e-mail address, then you will continue to receive security updates and other notifications from Oracle to that e-mail address.

If the host where the database is being provisioned has an indirect connection to the Internet through a proxy server, then specify an e-mail address and My Oracle Support password, and then in the Connection Details section, specify the proxy server details.

Note:

You can change the proxy server settings any time after the Deployment Procedure ends. To do so, run the configCCR command from the /ccr/bin/ directory within the Oracle home directory of the provisioned database.

If the host where the database is being provisioned does not have a direct or indirect connection to the Internet, then specify the e-mail address and leave the other fields blank.

On the Review page, review the details you have provided for provisioning Oracle RAC, and click Submit. If the details you provided seem to be missing on this page, then see the workaround described in Appendix A, "Troubleshooting Issues".

Provisioning Oracle RAC Using Gold Image

This section describes how you can provision a gold image of Oracle RAC.

Note:

Ensure that you use a gold image that was created using the Oracle home directory of a RAC database. You cannot use a gold image that was created using the Oracle home directory of a standalone database.

Ensure that the target hosts have the necessary hardware and software required for Oracle RAC. The hardware requirements include setting up of the following:

Private Network: The network interface cards must be installed on each node and connected to each other.

Shared Storage Between Nodes: The shared storage is required for OCR, Voting disks and the data files.

Ensure that the Virtual IPs are set up in the DNS. If you choose to set up the Virtual IPs locally, then the IP addresses can be specified using the Deployment Procedure, and the procedure will set them up for you.

If you want to use standard response files while provisioning the database, then edit the dbca.rsp file available on the installation medium, and store it in the Software Library.

To understand how response files work, see the Oracle Database Installation Guide for Linux available at one of these URLs:

Ensure that the User IDs for operating system users and the Group IDs for operating system groups are identical on all nodes of the cluster.

Prerequisites for Operators

Ensure that you do NOT use an NIS-based operating system user.

Ensure that you use an operating system user that has the privileges to run the Deployment Procedure and its commands on the target hosts. If you do not have the privileges to do so, that is, if you are using a locked account, then request your administrator (a designer) to either customize the Deployment Procedure to run it as another user or ignore the steps that require special privileges. For information about customization, see Chapter 23, "Customizing Steps to Run as Another User".

Ensure that you use an operating system user that has write permission on the staging areas used for placing software binaries of Oracle RAC database.

Deployment Procedures allow you to use staging locations for quick file-transfer of binaries and prevent high traffic over the network. While providing a staging location, ensure that the operating system user you use has write permission on those staging locations. For information about staging area, see Staging Area.

While selecting the source, remember to remove sqlnet.ora from the list of files mentioned in Files to Exclude.

Ensure that the umask value on the target host is 022.

Provisioning Procedure

To provision a gold image of an Oracle RAC installation, follow these steps:

Enterprise Manager Grid Control displays the Select Source page of the Deployment Procedure.

On the Select Source page, do the following:

In the Select Source section, select Select from Software Library.

In the Source for Clusterware section, click the torch icon and select the generic component that has the gold image of Oracle Clusterware. Ensure that you select only components that are in "Ready" status. Once you select the component name, the application automatically displays the component location.

In the Source for RAC section, click the torch icon and select the generic component that has the gold image of Oracle Database. Ensure that you select only components that are in "Ready" status. Once you select the component name, the application automatically displays the component location.

If you do not want to deploy ASM, then retain the default selection, that is, Do not Provision ASM.

If you want to deploy ASM in the same Oracle home as the Oracle RAC, then select Use the same source as the RAC home. Alternatively, if you can select Choose a component and upload an ASM component from the Software Library.

Click Next.

On the Select Hosts page, do the following:

In the Hosts to Include in Cluster section, click Add and select the target hosts that should form the cluster. To see more details about the selected hosts, click Show Options.

Note:

When you click Add, the Select Target pop-up window appears. On this page, by default, the Show Suitable Hosts option is selected and the table lists only those hosts that are best suited for provisioning. If you do not find the host you want to add, then select Show All Hosts to view a complete list of hosts.

By default, Private Host Name and Virtual Host Name are automatically prefilled with values. Edit them and specify values that match with your environment. Optionally, you can also specify their IP addresses.

If you already have these details stored in cluster configuration file, then click Import From File to select that cluster configuration file. This file typically contains information about the new hosts to be added. To understand how a cluster configuration file looks, see the sample file shown in Sample Cluster Configuration File.

To configure the private and public network interfaces, click Select Interfaces. By default, the interfaces that have the same name and subnet for the selected target hosts are displayed. However, you can also choose to view all the interfaces for the selected target hosts. You can either select one of the existing interfaces or specify a completely new one if the interface you want to use does not exist.

In the Network Interface Configuration section, review the details of the private and public interfaces.

Click Next.

On the Credentials/Schedule page, do the following:

In the Target Host(s) Credentials section, retain the default selection, that is, Use Preferred Credentials.

Note:

You can optionally override these preferred credentials. The credentials you specify here are used by the Deployment Procedure to run the provisioning operation. If this environment is secure and has locked accounts, then make sure that:

The credentials you specify here have the necessary privileges to switch to the locked account for performing the provisioning operation.

The Deployment Procedures has been customized to support locked environments.

From the Host Credentials list, select Different for each Oracle Home if you want to use different operating system credentials for each Oracle home, or Same for all Oracle Homes if you want to use the same set of credentials for all Oracle homes. Depending on the selection you make, specify the credentials. Ensure that the users belong to the same group (dba/oinstall).

Note:

If you are using vendor clusterware, then ensure that root and the operating system users, such as oracle and crsuser, owning the clusterware and various Oracle homes are a part of the operating system groups required by the vendor clusterware.

For example, if your system uses High Availability Cluster Multiprocessing (HACMP) clusterware, then create or check for the existence of the group hagsuser. Ensure that the relevant operating system users and root user are members of this group.

For more information, refer to the Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Real Application Clusters Installation and Configuration Guide.

In the Schedule section, schedule the Deployment Procedure to run either immediately or later.

Click Next.

On the Configure Cluster page, do the following:

In the Cluster Name and Location section, review the default name and location details provided for Oracle Clusterware and Oracle RAC Database. While Oracle recommends you to retain the default values, you can always edit them to provide custom values.

For security purposes, the clusterware configuration sets the ownership of Oracle Clusterware home and all its parent directories to be owned by root. Hence, Oracle recommends you to install Oracle Clusterware outside the Oracle base of the Oracle RAC home.

The default cluster name you see here is based on the host cluster name you provided in the Agent Deploy application in Enterprise Manager Grid Control, while deploying Management Agents on a cluster. The scratch location you see here is a temporary location on the target host where temporary files are placed before provisioning and configuring Oracle RAC.

For Additional Parameters, specify any additional parameters you want to run while installing Oracle Clusterware. For example, -debug.

You can specify any Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) parameter that can be used in this provisioning operation. Using these parameters, you can even change the installation type of the database. For example, INSTALL_TYPE=SE. Ensure that the parameters are separated by white space.

Note:

If this entire section (Cluster Name and Location section) is disabled, then it is clear that each node has a Management Agent, but they were NOT installed using the Cluster Install option available in the Agent Deploy application. To resolve this issue, ensure that you convert the standalone Management Agents to a cluster agent. For more information, see Appendix I, "Converting Standalone Oracle Management Agent to Cluster Agent".

In the Database Details section, retain the default selection for creating a starter database.

Note:

If the database creation steps are disabled in the Deployment Procedure, then you will not see this section.

If you want to create a general-purpose database, then leave all the fields in this section blank. Otherwise, provide the required details as described in this step.

If you have a custom response file that already has the options enabled, then select Use response file to create database, and specify the full path to a location where the file is available. The file may be available on the target host, in a shared location accessible from the target host, in the Software Library, or in a location where an existing database is running.

Note:

From the Software Library or from the location where an existing database is running, only a .dbt template file can be used. However, from the target host or a shared location, any template file can be used.

If you do not have a custom response file, then select Do not use response file, and provide the global database name, the credentials, and the additional parameters you want to run while creating the starter database.

Note:

Ensure that the database name you specify is in the format database_name.database_domain. It must have 1 to 8 alphanumeric characters. For example, orcl.mydomain.com. Also note that the credentials you provide are used for SYS, SYSTEM, SYSMAN, and DBSNMP accounts.

If you want to use the structure of an existing database and have a custom template to structure the new database, then in Template File for Database, specify the full path to a location where the template file is available. The file may be available on the target host or on a shared location accessible from the target host.

Note:

If you do not store the response files and templates in a central location, you can always customize the Deployment Procedure to add another step that copies the response file or template to the target host before invoking the configuration tools to create the database.

In the Backup and Recovery Details section, retain the default selection, that is, Do not Enable Automated Backups if you do not want to have backups taken.

Alternatively, if you want to enable automated backups, select Enable Automated Backups, specify the full path to a directory location from where the backed-up files can be recovered, and provide the operating system credentials for running the backup job. Note that recovery location is the same location as the backup location because this where the files are backed up and also recovered from.

In the ASM Instance Details section (appears only if you had selected to deploy ASM), retain the default selection, that is, Create ASM Instance, and specify the credentials, additional ASM parameters to be used, and the ASM disk string to be used.

Important:

If you are provisioning Oracle Database 10g and Oracle ASM 10g, then ensure that you specify the same password for database as well as ASM.

If you have a custom response file that already has the options enabled, then select Use response file to create ASM database, and specify the full path to a location where the file is available. The file may be availableon the target host or on a shared location accessible fromt he target hosts.

If you do not want to use a response file, then select Do not use response file.

Click Next.

On the Storage page, do the following:

In the Shared Storage Configuration section, provide details about the storage devices and click Next. Specify the partition name and the mount location, and select the mount format and a storage device for storing data. While partition name is the path to the location where the device is installed, mount location is the mount point that represents the partition location.

While configuring the storage device, at a minimum, you must have a partition for at least OCR, Voting Disk, and data files. You cannot designate the same storage device to multiple partitions.

Oracle recommends designating the OCR and the OCR Mirror devices to different partitions. Similarly, Oracle recommends designating the Voting Disk, Voting Disk1, and Voting Disk2 to different partitions.

Before clicking Next, do the following:

- If you want to clear the data on selected raw devices before creating and configuring the cluster, then select Clear raw devices.

- If you have configured only for a few storage devices, then select Do not provision storage for others that you do not want to provision.

- Specify the ASM disk string to be used.

In the Options section, select the ASM redundancy mode. The default is None, which requires 7 GB of space. While Normal requires 16 GB of space, High requires 32 GB.

(Optional) On the Configuration page, do the following:

Note:

If the configuration steps are disabled in the Deployment Procedure, then you will not see this page.

In the Bonding Interface (Private Interconnect) section, select Configure Bonding Interface if you want to configure the bonding interface. To bind the interfaces, specify details as described in Table 5-5.

In the Sysctl File Configuration section, select Configure Sysctl file if you want to configure the sysctl.conf file. Specify the mode of editing the system configuration file and the location of the reference system configuration file used for modifying the kernel parameters.

The default mode is append. You can however select edit to modify, and replace to replace the current sysctl.conf file.

Ensure that the reference file you specify is available in a shared location accessible by the Oracle Management Service.

On the Configure Oracle Home page, do the following:

If the host where the database is being provisioned has a direct connection to the Internet, then specify an e-mail address and My Oracle Support password.

An e-mail address is required so that security updates and install updates can be sent. You can specify any e-mail address, but Oracle recommends you to specify the My Oracle Support user name. For example, john.mathew@xyz.com.

If the My Oracle Support password is incorrect, you will be allowed two more attempts. However, if your password is incorrect in all three attempts or if it is left blank, then you are registered anonymously, which means, the configuration information will be collected and uploaded to My Oracle Support but the uploaded information will not be associated with your My Oracle Support account. Therefore, if you log in to My Oracle Support with your credentials, you will not see this information displayed against your account. However, if you had specified an e-mail address, then you will continue to receive security updates and other notifications from Oracle to that e-mail address.

If the host where the database is being provisioned has an indirect connection to the Internet through a proxy server, then specify an e-mail address and My Oracle Support password, and then in the Connection Details section, specify the proxy server details.

Note:

You can change the proxy server settings any time after the Deployment Procedure ends. To do so, run the configCCR command from the /ccr/bin/ directory within the Oracle home directory of the provisioned database.

If the host where the database is being provisioned does not have a direct or indirect connection to the Internet, then specify the e-mail address and leave the other fields blank.

On the Review page, review the details you have provided for provisioning Oracle RAC, and click Submit. If the details you provided seem to be missing on this page, then see the workaround described in Appendix A, "Troubleshooting Issues".

Ensure that the target hosts have the necessary hardware and software required for Oracle RAC. The hardware requirements include setting up of the following:

Private Network: The network interface cards must be installed on each node and connected to each other.

Shared Storage Between Nodes: The shared storage is required for OCR, Voting disks and the data files.

Ensure that the Virtual IPs are set up in the DNS. If you choose to set up the Virtual IPs locally, then the IP addresses can be specified using the Deployment Procedure, and the procedure will set them up for you.

If you want to use standard response files while provisioning the database, then edit the dbca.rsp file available on the installation medium, and store it in a location accessible from the target hosts. The file may be on the target host or on a shared location.

To understand how response files work, see the Oracle Database Installation Guide for Linux available at one of these URLs:

If you want to use a custom template to create a structure for the database, then create a template (a .dbt file), and store it in a location accessible from the target hosts. The file may be on the target host or on a shared location.

Ensure that the User IDs for operating system users and the Group IDs for operating system groups are identical on all nodes of the cluster.

Prerequisites for Operators

Ensure that you do NOT use an NIS-based operating system user.

Ensure that you use an operating system user that has the privileges to run the Deployment Procedure and its commands on the target hosts. If you do not have the privileges to do so, that is, if you are using a locked account, then request your administrator (a designer) to either customize the Deployment Procedure to run it as another user or ignore the steps that require special privileges. For information about customization, see Chapter 23, "Customizing Steps to Run as Another User".

Ensure that you use an operating system user that has write permission on the staging areas used for placing software binaries of Oracle RAC database.

Deployment Procedures allow you to use staging locations for quick file-transfer of binaries and prevent high traffic over the network. While providing a staging location, ensure that the operating system user you use has write permission on those staging locations. For information about staging area, see Staging Area.

Enterprise Manager Grid Control displays the Select Source page of the Deployment Procedure.

On the Select Source page, do the following:

In the Select Source section, select Select from Software Library.

In the Source for Clusterware section, click the torch icon and select the generic component that has the software binaries of Oracle Clusterware. Ensure that you select only components that are in "Ready" status. Once you select the component name, the application automatically displays the component location.

In the Source for RAC section, click the torch icon and select the generic component that has the software binaries of Oracle Database. Ensure that you select only components that are in "Ready" status. Once you select the component name, the application automatically displays the component location.

If you do not want to deploy ASM, then retain the default selection, that is, Do not Provision ASM.

If you want to deploy ASM in the same Oracle home as the Oracle RAC, then select Use the same source as the RAC home. Alternatively, if you can select Choose a component and upload an ASM component from the Software Library.

Click Next.

On the Select Hosts page, do the following:

In the Hosts to Include in Cluster section, click Add and select the target hosts that should form the cluster. To see more details about the selected hosts, click Show Options.

Note:

When you click Add, the Select Target pop-up window appears. On this page, by default, the Show Suitable Hosts option is selected and the table lists only those hosts that are best suited for provisioning. If you do not find the host you want to add, then select Show All Hosts to view a complete list of hosts.

By default, Private Host Name and Virtual Host Name are automatically prefilled with values. Edit them and specify values that match with your environment. Optionally, you can also specify their IP addresses.

If you already have these details stored in a cluster configuration file, then click Import From File to select that cluster configuration file. This file typically contains information about the new hosts to be added. To understand how a cluster configuration file looks, see the sample file shown in Sample Cluster Configuration File.

To configure the private and public network interfaces, click Select Interfaces. By default, the interfaces that have the same name and subnet for the selected target hosts are displayed. However, you can also choose to view all the interfaces for the selected target hosts. You can either select one of the existing interfaces or specify a completely new one if the interface you want to use does not exist.

In the Network Interface Configuration section, review the details of the private and public interfaces.

Click Next.

On the Credentials/Schedule page, do the following:

In the Target Host(s) Credentials section, retain the default selection, that is, Use Preferred Credentials.

Note:

You can optionally override these preferred credentials. The credentials you specify here are used by the Deployment Procedure to run the provisioning operation. If this environment is secure and has locked accounts, then make sure that:

The credentials you specify here have the necessary privileges to switch to the locked account for performing the provisioning operation.

The Deployment Procedures has been customized to support locked environments.

From the Host Credentials list, select Different for each Oracle Home if you want to use different operating system credentials for each Oracle home, or Same for all Oracle Homes if you want to use the same set of credentials for all Oracle homes. Depending on the selection you make, specify the credentials. Ensure that the users belong to the same group (dba/oinstall).

Note:

If you are using vendor clusterware, then ensure that root and the operating system users, such as oracle and crsuser, owning the clusterware and various Oracle homes are a part of the operating system groups required by the vendor clusterware.

For example, if your system uses High Availability Cluster Multiprocessing (HACMP) clusterware, then create or check for the existence of the group hagsuser. Ensure that the relevant operating system users and root user are members of this group.

For more information, refer to the Oracle Clusterware and Oracle Real Application Clusters Installation and Configuration Guide.

In the Schedule section, schedule the Deployment Procedure to run either immediately or later.

Click Next.

On the Configure Cluster page, do the following:

In the Cluster Name and Location section, review the default name and location details provided for Oracle Clusterware and Oracle RAC Database. While Oracle recommends you to retain the default values, you can always edit them to provide custom values.

For security purposes, the clusterware configuration sets the ownership of Oracle Clusterware home and all its parent directories to be owned by root. Hence, Oracle recommends you to install Oracle Clusterware outside the Oracle base of the Oracle RAC home.

The default cluster name you see here is based on the host cluster name you provided in the Agent Deploy application in Enterprise Manager Grid Control, while deploying Management Agents on a cluster. The scratch location you see here is a temporary location on the target host where temporary files are placed before provisioning and configuring Oracle RAC.

For Additional Parameters, specify any additional parameters you want to run while installing Oracle Clusterware. For example, -debug.

You can specify any Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) parameter that can be used in this provisioning operation. Using these parameters, you can even change the installation type of the database. For example, INSTALL_TYPE=SE. Ensure that the parameters are separated by white space.

Note:

If this entire section (Cluster Name and Location section) is disabled, then it is clear that each node has a Management Agent, but they were NOT installed using the Cluster Install option available in the Agent Deploy application. To resolve this issue, ensure that you convert the standalone Management Agents to a cluster agent. For more information, see Appendix I, "Converting Standalone Oracle Management Agent to Cluster Agent".

In the Database Details section, retain the default selection for creating a starter database.

Note:

If the database creation steps are disabled in the Deployment Procedure, then you will not see this section.

If you want to create a general-purpose database, then leave all the fields in this section blank. Otherwise, provide the required details as described in this step.

If you have a custom response file that already has the options enabled, then select Use response file to create database, and specify the full path to a location where the file is available. The file may be available on the target host, in a shared location accessible from the target host, in the Software Library, or in a location where an existing database is running.

Note:

From the Software Library or from the location where an existing database is running, only a .dbt template file can be used. However, from the target host or a shared location, any template file can be used.

If you do not have a custom response file, then select Do not use response file, and provide the global database name, the credentials, and the additional parameters you want to run while creating the starter database.

Note:

Ensure that the database name you specify is in the format database_name.database_domain. It must have 1 to 8 alphanumeric characters. For example, orcl.mydomain.com. Also note that the credentials you provide are used for SYS, SYSTEM, SYSMAN, and DBSNMP accounts.

If you want to use the structure of an existing database and have a custom template to structure the new database, then in Template File for Database, specify the full path to a location where the template file is available. The file may be available on the target host or on a shared location accessible from the target host.

Note:

If you do not store the response files and templates in a central location, you can always customize the Deployment Procedure to add another step that copies the response file or template to the target host before invoking the configuration tools to create the database.

In the Backup and Recovery Details section, retain the default selection, that is, Do not Enable Automated Backups if you do not want to have backups taken.

Alternatively, if you want to enable automated backups, select Enable Automated Backups, specify the full path to a directory location from where the backed-up files can be recovered, and provide the operating system credentials for running the backup job. Note that recovery location is the same location as the backup location because this where the files are backed up and also recovered from.

In the ASM Instance Details section (appears only if you had selected to deploy ASM), retain the default selection, that is, Create ASM Instance, and specify the credentials, additional ASM parameters to be used, and the ASM disk string to be used.

Important:

If you are provisioning Oracle Database 10g and Oracle ASM 10g, then ensure that you specify the same password for database as well as ASM.

If you have a custom response file that already has the options enabled, then select Use response file to create ASM database, and specify the full path to a location where the file is available. The file may be available on the target host or on a shared location accessible from the target hosts.

If you do not want to use a response file, then select Do not use response file.

Click Next.

On the Storage page, do the following:

In the Shared Storage Configuration section, provide details about the storage devices and click Next. Specify the partition name and the mount location, and select the mount format and a storage device for storing data. While partition name is the path to the location where the device is installed, mount location is the mount point that represents the partition location.

While configuring the storage device, at a minimum, you must have a partition for at least OCR, Voting Disk, and data files. You cannot designate the same storage device to multiple partitions.

Oracle recommends designating the OCR and the OCR Mirror devices to different partitions. Similarly, Oracle recommends designating the Voting Disk, Voting Disk1, and Voting Disk2 to different partitions.

Before clicking Next, do the following:

- If you want to clear the data on selected raw devices before creating and configuring the cluster, then select Clear raw devices.

- If you have configured only for a few storage devices, then select Do not provision storage for others that you do not want to provision.

- Specify the ASM disk string to be used.

In the Options section, select the ASM redundancy mode. The default is None, which requires 7 GB of space. While Normal requires 16 GB of space, High requires 32 GB.

(Optional) On the Configuration page, do the following:

Note:

If the configuration steps are disabled in the Deployment Procedure, then you will not see this page.

In the Bonding Interface (Private Interconnect) section, select Configure Bonding Interface if you want to configure the bonding interface. To bind the interfaces, specify details as described in Table 5-5.

In the Sysctl File Configuration section, select Configure Sysctl file if you want to configure the sysctl.conf file. Specify the mode of editing the system configuration file and the location of the reference system configuration file used for modifying the kernel parameters.

The default mode is append. You can however select edit to modify, and replace to replace the current sysctl.conf file.

Ensure that the reference file you specify is available in a shared location accessible by the Oracle Management Service.

On the Configure Oracle Home page, do the following:

If the host where the database is being provisioned has a direct connection to the Internet, then specify an e-mail address and My Oracle Support password.

An e-mail address is required so that security updates and install updates can be sent. You can specify any e-mail address, but Oracle recommends you to specify the My Oracle Support user name. For example, john.mathew@xyz.com.

If the My Oracle Support password is incorrect, you will be allowed two more attempts. However, if your password is incorrect in all three attempts or if it is left blank, then you are registered anonymously, which means, the configuration information will be collected and uploaded to My Oracle Support but the uploaded information will not be associated with your My Oracle Support account. Therefore, if you log in to My Oracle Support with your credentials, you will not see this information displayed against your account. However, if you had specified an e-mail address, then you will continue to receive security updates and other notifications from Oracle to that e-mail address.

If the host where the database is being provisioned has an indirect connection to the Internet through a proxy server, then specify an e-mail address and My Oracle Support password, and then in the Connection Details section, specify the proxy server details.

Note:

You can change the proxy server settings any time after the Deployment Procedure ends. To do so, run the configCCR command from the /ccr/bin/ directory within the Oracle home directory of the provisioned database.

If the host where the database is being provisioned does not have a direct or indirect connection to the Internet, then specify the e-mail address and leave the other fields blank.

On the Review page, review the details you have provided for provisioning Oracle RAC, and click Submit. If the details you provided seem to be missing on this page, then see the workaround described in Appendix A, "Troubleshooting Issues".

Specify the subnet mask for the IP address. For example, 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway

Specify the default gateway for the bonding device. For example, 10.1.2.3

DNS Servers

Specify the Domain Name Server (DNS) list for the bonding device. For multiple DNS servers, the values should be comma- separated. Default values are picked up from the /etc/resolv.conf file. Entries provided here will be appended.

Slave Devices List

Specify the list of slave devices for the bonding device. For multiple slave devices, the values should be comma-separated. For example, eth1,eth2,eth3.

Bonding Mode

Specifies one of four policies allowed for the bonding module. Acceptable values for this parameter are:

0 (Balance-rr)— Sets a round-robin policy for fault tolerance and load balancing. Transmissions are received and sent out sequentially on each bonded slave interface beginning with the first one available.

1 (Active-backup)— Sets an active-backup policy for fault tolerance. Transmissions are received and sent out through the first available bonded slave interface. Another bonded slave interface is only used if the active bonded slave interface fails.

2 (Balance-xor)— Sets an XOR (exclusive-or) policy for fault tolerance and load balancing. Using this method, the interface matches up the incoming request's MAC address with the MAC address for one of the slave NICs. Once this link is established, transmissions are sent out sequentially beginning with the first available interface.

3 (Broadcast)— Sets a round-robin policy for fault tolerance and load balancing. Transmissions are send out sequentially on each bonded slave interface beginning with the first one available.

Domain Name

Specify the domain name for the assigned host name. For example, foo.com

Primary Slave Device

Specify the interface name, such as eth0, of the primary device. The primary device is the first of the bonding interfaces to be used and is not abandoned unless it fails. This setting is particularly useful when one NIC in the bonding interface is faster and, therefore, able to handle a bigger load. This setting is only valid when the bonding interface is in active-backup mode.

ARP Interval

Specify (in milliseconds) how often ARP monitoring occurs. If using this setting while in mode 0 or 2 (the two load-balancing modes) the network switch must be configured to distribute packets evenly across the NICs. The value is set to 0 by default, which disables it.

MII Interval

Specify (in milliseconds) how often MII link monitoring occurs. This is useful if high availability is required because MII is used to verify that the NIC is active to verify that the driver for a particular NIC supports the MII tool. If using a bonded interface for high availability, the module for each NIC must support MII. Setting the value to 0 (the default), turns this feature off. When configuring this setting, a good starting point for this parameter is 100.

MII Interval Down Delay

Specify (in milliseconds) how long to wait after link failure before disabling the link. The value must be a multiple of the value specified in the miimon parameter. The value is set to 0 by default, which disables it.

MII Interval Up Delay

Specify (in milliseconds) how long to wait before enabling a link. The value must be a multiple of the value specified in the miimon parameter. The value is set to 0 by default, which disables it.

NTP Server

Specify the NTP server for the assigned host name. For example, 1.2.3.4.

Sample Cluster Configuration File

The following shows the contents of a typical cluster configuration file: